Archive for November 10, 2008

Nicholas Aristides Vanikiotis was eighteen years old in 1943 when he was drafted into the Army. While in training at Fort Carson in Colorado, William “Wild Bill” Donovan arrived to recruit members for the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services, precursor to the C.I.A.). As a son of Greek immigrants, Nick had the language skills that would be invaluable to the special operations groups (S.O.G.s) being formed to help the National Resistance fighters against the Axis powers in Yugoslavia and Greece. Donovan was clear that the mortality rate for such secret missions could be as high as 70 to 90 percent, but with the bravado of the young and a desire to help free his parents’ homeland from the Nazis, Nick, along with 500 others, volunteered. After weeks of a strict vetting process that included F.B.I. checks, interviews and psychological testing, 150 young men were chosen, my future father-in-law among them.

Three months of initial training in weaponry, tactics and hand-to-hand combat took place at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, followed by demolitions training at Hagerstown, Maryland. Eventually several of these S.O.G.s were transported across the Atlantic and hopscotched from Egypt to Palestine to Italy. Based finally on the island of Vis, the only island off the Dalmatian Coast not occupied by Germany, the troops’ mission was to disrupt German supply lines and support Marshal Tito’s resistance army in pushing the enemy out of Yugoslavia and Greece.

After the Allies recaptured the island of Solta, Nick’s group set out on the mainland on a nearly 1,000-mile, 17-day march conducted mostly at night over mountainous terrain to Volos, Greece. Along the way they ambushed German supply convoys, blew up bridges and cratered roadways. Years later he glossed over the details of this mission, never revealing to his sons or grandchildren exactly what his encounters with the enemy were like. He would talk about how that trek ruined his feet (he always walked with a limp) and mention with affection those who were wounded or killed, but as with so many veterans, he did not share how a 19-year-old boy coped with all that he saw and did in that time. In fact, the story he most often shared involved his “celebrity sighting” while stationed on Vis. He told of observing a three-masted schooner sailing into the harbor one day skippered by none other than Sterling Hayden, the movie star. Hayden was also working for the O.S.S., smuggling guns to Tito’s fighters.

Like most others who survived fighting for our country in World War II, Nicholas Vanikiotis returned home after the war, went to school on the G.I. Bill, married, raised his sons and worked hard to support his family. His sons and granddaughters, when prodded by history lessons at school, would ask him to tell them about the war. He would relate these bits and pieces, but it was clear it was not a subject on which he wished to dwell. When he passed away eight years ago, we found a few of his mementos of the war: his discharge papers, his uniform, pictures of him in front of the Sphinx in Egypt, a dagger and a pistol.

As the years have passed and I watch new generations of our children volunteer to travel to foreign lands and go in harm’s way, I stand in awe of the sacrifices they and their families make. Having gotten a very private glimpse of the changes those sacrifices worked upon one young man, I honor every one who travels that path.

Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader